The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
Table of Contents
Darrell
Handsome, courageous, tenacious, responsible, and hardworking, Darrel has all of the qualities, but one, that make his brother respect him. He is too hard on himself and others, and this is mirrored in his looks: "He's got eyes that are like two pieces of pale-blue green ice. They've got a determined set to them, like the rest of him. He looks older than twenty—tough, cool, and smart. He would be real handsome if his eyes weren't so cold" (15).
Darrel has had it too tough. His parents were killed when he was young, leaving him in charge. He was not born into a middle-class background, but his burden of responsibility makes him forfeit his college scholarship and dreams for the future. Darrel had liked school, and he could have gone far in life. We receive this impression over and again: He rages when Sodapop calls him "all brawns and no brains." He is irked when he sees the expression on his former buddy's face: "Contempt? Pity? Hate? All three? Why? Because... Paul felt only contempt and pity and hate for greasers?" (150). Unemotional, aloof, and factual, Darrel is resolved to make it and exhorts Ponyboy never to quit.
Ponyboy recognizes that Darry:
wasn't going to be any hood when he got old. He was going to get somewhere. Living the way we do would only make him more determined to get somewhere. That's why he's better than the rest of us, I thought. He's going somewhere. And I was going to be like him. I wasn't going to live in a lousy neighborhood all my life (ibid.).
Darrel is one of these characters that causes us to admire the greasers more than the Socs and causes us to reflect on social unfairness and prejudice toward the "hoods" of society. Hinton wanted us to understand the greasers. She did a good job by giving us Darry.
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